The search operation by troops launched in the forest area of Gadole in Kokernag in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district to track down a group of Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists involved in killing of four security men including three top officials entered 6th day on Monday.
Army along with Jammu and Kashmir Police men resumed operations on the sixth consecutive day against Lashkar terrorists holed up in the forest area of the Gadole in the Kokernag area of Anantnag district.
The troops have fired hundreds of mortar shells and rockets, targeted suspected terrorist hideouts with hi-tech equipment, and dropped explosives using advanced drones.
The Army has even released a picture of the drone being used in the operation.
Sources said charred body has been recovered from the forest area and DNA testing would be done to ascertain identity of the body.
Thousands of troops including para commandos are locked in the operation to track down the terrorists.
The heavily armed terrorists, believed to be two-three in number, are hiding in a tactically favourable location in the dense and steep forest.
They are believed to be affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba as one of them is one of them is Uzair Khan, who joined Lashkar last year and is well aware of the area.
It has been raining intermittently at the encounter site since Saturday, which is causing a lot of difficulty in the operation.
Especially on these hills of Pir Panjal, there are dense forests, caves, and ditches, due to which the visibility reduces considerably and makes the operation riskier.
Sources said that there has been no firing from terrorists since Wednesday but until that area is completely sanitised, security men cannot go there.
“It's possible that the terrorist may be alive and hiding to fire secretly. They may even have planted an improvised explosive device (IED) in the hideout and set it to explode when the soldiers reach there. This is why the army is moving very slowly,” sources said.
Army dogs and equipment to detect explosives are also being used to clear the area.
The joint operation by Army and police began Tuesday night based on intelligence input, followed by an attempt to approach the terrorist hideout the next day. The terrorists who appear to have anticipated the action opened fire on the forces, caught between the dense forests and hill on one side and a deep ditch on the other.
Leading from the front, two Army officers - Colonel Manpreet Singh and Major Ashish Dhonchak, and Deputy Superintendent of Police Humayun Bhat - were killed in action. Two more soldiers were injured and one of them succumbed to injuries a few days later.